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William Sharp (poet)
William Sharp (12 September 1855 – 12 December 1905) was a Scottish poet, and a writer of literary biography in particular, who from 1893 wrote also as Fiona MacLeod, a pseudonym kept almost secret during his lifetime. He also edited the poetry of Ossian, Walter Scott, Matthew Arnold, Algernon Charles Swinburne and Eugene Lee-Hamilton. Life Sharp was born in Paisley, Scotland, and educated at Glasgow Academy and the University of Glasgow, which he attended 1871-1872 without completing a degree. In 1872 he contracted typhoid. During 1874-5 he worked in a Glasgow law office. His health broke down in 1876 and he was sent on a voyage to Australia. In 1878 he took a position in a bank in London. He was introduced to Dante Gabriel Rossetti by Sir Noel Paton, and joined the Rossetti literary group; which included Hall Caine, Philip Bourke Marston and Swinburne. He married his cousin Elizabeth in 1884, and devoted himself to writing full time from 1891, travelling widely. Also about this time, he developed an intensely romantic but perhaps asexual attachment to Edith Wingate Rinder, another writer of the consciously Celtic Edinburgh circle surrounding Patrick Geddes and "The Evergreen." It was to Rinder ("EWR") he attributed the inspiration for his writings as Fiona MacLeod thereafter, and to whom he dedicated his first MacLeod novel ("Pharais") in 1894. Sharp had a complex and ambivalent relationship with W.B. Yeats during the 1890s, as a central tension in the Celtic Revival. Yeats initially found MacLeod acceptable and Sharp not, and later fathomed their identity. Sharp found the dual personality an increasing strain. On occasions when it was necessary for "Fiona MacLeod" to write to someone unaware of the dual identity, Sharp would dictate the text to his sister (Mary Beatrice Sharp), whose handwriting would then be passed off as Fiona's manuscript. During his MacLeod period, Sharp was a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. He died (and is buried) at Castello di Maniace, Sicily. In 1910, Elizabeth Sharp published a biographical memoir attempting to explain the creative necessity behind the deception, and edited a complete edition of his works. Publications Poetry *''The Human Inheritance, The New Hope, Motherhood and other poems'' (1882) *''Sopistra and other poems'' (1884); *''Earth's Voices'' (1884) poems *''Romantic Ballads and Poems of Phantasy'' (1888) *''Sospiri di Roma'' (1891) poems *''From the Hills of Dream: threnodies, songs and Later poems'' (1901) as FM *''Selected Writings of William Sharp'' (selected and arranged by Elizabeth A. Sharp William Sharp). New York: Duffield & Co., 1912.["Selected Writings of William Sharp," Mary Ann Dobratz, 1998-2000. Web, Dec. 6, 2012. Volume 1. Poems Non-fiction * Dante Gabriel Rossetti: A Record and Study (1882) * Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1887) * Life of Heinrich Heine (1888) * Life of Robert Browning (1889) * Life of Joseph Severn (1892) *''Fair Women in Painting and Poetry'' (1896) *''Lyra Celtica: An Anthology of Representative Celtic Poetry'' (1896) *''Literary Geography'' (1904) *''The Winged Destiny: Studies in the Spiritual History of the Gael'' (1904) as FM and dedicated to Dr John Goodchild *''The Progress of Art in the Nineteenth century'' (1902) * Where the forest murmurs. : Nature essays. London: Published at the Offices of ''C̀ountry life, ́ by G. Newnes; New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1906. FM'' Fiction * Sport of chance (1888) novel * Pharais (1894) novel as FM *''The Gipsy Christ and Other Tales'' (1895) *''Mountain Lovers'' (1895) novel as FM *''The Laughter of Peterkin'' (1895) as FM *''The Sin-Eater and Other Tales'' (1895) as FM *''Ecce puella and Other Prose Imaginings'' (1896) *''The Washer of the Ford'' (1896) novel as FM Collected Editions *''The Writings of "Fiona MacLeod". (se;ected and arranged by Elizabeth A. Sharp). New York: Duffield, 1909. w *''Selected Writings of William Sharp (selected and arranged by Elizabeth A. Sharp William Sharp). New York: Duffield & Co., 1912.["Selected Writings of William Sharp," Mary Ann Dobratz, 1998-2000. Web, Dec. 6, 2012. Edited *''Sonnets of this century'' (1886) editor *''Sea-Music: An Anthology of Poems'' (1887) *''American Sonnets'' (1889) *''The Children of Tomorrow'' (1889) *''A Fellowe and his Wife'' (1892) *''Flower o' the Vine'' (1892) *''Pagan Review'' (1892) *''Vistas'' (1894); *''By Sundown Shores'' (1900) as FM *''The Divine Adventure'' (1900) as FM *''Iona'' (1900) as FM *''The House of Usna'' (1903) play as FM *''The Immortal Hour'' (1908) play as FM References #"William Sharp (Fiona Macleod): A Memoir" (1910, 1912) Elizabeth A. Sharp #''William Sharp: "Fiona Macleod", 1855-1905'' (1970) Flavia Alaya #''The Sexual Tensions of William Sharp: A Study of the Birth of Fiona Macleod, Incorporating Two Lost Works, 'Ariadne in Naxos' and 'Beatrice'" (1996) Terry L. Meyers '' (Sharp's sexual orientation is a question still to be resolved, but some evidence in William Halloran's edition of Sharp's letters below may corroborate the suggestions by Meyers that the creation of Fiona Macleod in some sense reflected a crisis in Sharp's sexual identity). External links ;Poems * William Sharp in the Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse: "The Valley of Silence," "Desire," "The White Peace," "The Rose of Flame," "The Mystic's Prayer," "Triad" *William Sharp at PoemHunter (3 poems). *[http://www.sundown.pair.com/Sharp/WSVol_1/contents.htm Poems] ;Books * ;About *"The Little Book of the Great Enchantment" Biography of William Sharp by Steve Blamires (RJ Stewart Publications 2008) *[ William Sharp: The personality behind Fiona Macleod] at Scotland.com. * Original article is at William Sharp (Poet). ;Etc. *Guide to the William Sharp Papers at The Bancroft Library *The Letters of William Sharp 'Fiona Macleod' , ed. William Halloran (2002), available as part of SAS-Space. Category:1855 births Category:1905 deaths Category:Glasgow Academy alumni Category:Alumni of the University of Glasgow Category:Scottish poets Category:Scottish biographers Category:Literary hoaxes Category:Male authors who wrote under female pseudonyms Category:People from Paisley Category:19th-century poets Category:Poets Category:English-language poets